Mine are gone :(

I grew up seeing life through rose-colored glasses. I believed if I lived a good life, followed certain rules, did what I was supposed to do...that life would turn out happy and perfect. It was a great way to live. And then I found out, that most don't spend their life looking through rose-colored glasses.

Sometimes life throws you a curve ball, and you learn to see things differently.

I found that after my life began to hit some pretty hard skids, I needed friends who had also hit some pretty hard skids. I have been blessed in my life to have some really wonderful friends. They have been through much worse things than I have in my life. It makes me sad to see the suffering they have experienced and continue to have. When life gets tough, it is so helpful to me, to be able to talk and share and love and smile with someone who has known great pain and great loss. I know they can feel the depth of my pain. Together we become stronger and together we feel understood.



I wish everyone could wear rose-colored glasses for as long as possible. It is a nice way to live. Yet, at the same time, sometimes we don't get the growth we need or the knowledge we desire. Sometimes, when we are really young, we recognize the rose-colored glasses don't always work. So if you are fifteen or twenty five, newly married or with a new baby, I hope you can keep wearing your rose-colored glasses. The harsh realities of life will touch you soon enough...they seem to touch just about everyone at one time or another.

When we wake up in the morning, we have no idea what that day holds. It may be calm and happy. It might be fun and exciting. But it also may be filled with fear and tragedy. Those days we can lay down at night and feel peace should have our utmost gratitude.



I want to thank my friends who have walked the roads of my life with me. Sometimes you hold me up and sometimes I hold you up. Sometimes we collapse together whether it be in laughter or tears. But the important thing is we are together..encouraging and supporting each other through the good times as well as the hard times.

I hope the day will come - when we are old and grey - that we can put on our red hats, our pearls, and maybe even find our long lost rose-colored glasses! That would be wonderful...and probably very much deserved!